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Animal Welfare

Dr. Suzanne Millman, Associate Professor of Animal Welfare, leads an active research program in food animal welfare, coordinates animal welfare instruction within the DVM curriculum and provides expertise in animal behavior and welfare for producers, veterinarians and the public.

Ames -- In its continuing commitment to a science-based approach to animal welfare, the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University recently hired Suzanne Millman, PhD, an animal welfare specialist.

At Iowa State, Dr. Millman will provide continuing education to veterinary practitioners to support their efforts in responding to animal welfare issues. She will also be a resource to livestock and poultry industries for educational materials that support best practices in animal well-being. Additionally, Dr. Millman will conduct research related to animal welfare in animal production systems, and train students in animal welfare.

Millman has a doctorate in applied ethology and BSc in animal and poultry science from the University of Guelph, Canada. Previously, she was an associate professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, in Guelph, Canada.

"An important part of what Millman will be doing at Iowa State is preparing veterinary students, veterinarians, and producers to better understand and respond to social and political opposition to current and future animal agricultural practices," said Dr. Patrick Halbur, chair of the Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine Department at Iowa State University. "Doctor Millman's broad knowledge of welfare across several production animal species and systems will make her a highly sought after resource within and outside the College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research on assessment of the welfare of compromised animal and management of pain in food animals is highly relevant to the industry and of ever increasing interest to the consumer."

"I have always been interested in animal behavior and trying to understand how animals view their world, so animal welfare was a natural fit," Millman said. "I am very excited to begin working on animal welfare here in Iowa, since this is the heartland of animal agriculture and there are many opportunities to help producers stay at the forefront of this issue. I have a broad range of experience, having lived in the US, Canada and Europe, working with cattle, swine, small ruminants, poultry and performance horses, and so I am able to come at the issues from a variety of perspectives. Animal welfare requires an interdisciplinary team, so adding animal behavior to the ISU veterinary and biomedical disciplines allows us to truly have a "whole animal" scientific approach."

Since arriving at Iowa State, Millman has been visiting swine, egg, and cattle operations and talking to producers to know more about Iowa's animal production industries. She is a contributor to a scientific review of euthanasia methods currently being developed by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. Millman is a member of the animal welfare committees of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association and the Iowa Farm Animal Emergency Response Task Force.